Tags

RELATED

Photograph of Luigi Pancaro (left) with David Butti, May 1958

Photograph of Luigi Pancaro (left) with David Butti, aboard the Giulio Cesare, May 1958.

Luigi Pancaro was a surgeon, trained in Italy. Pancaro immigrated to Canada in 1926, settling in North Bay. He left North Bay in 1930 to study surgical technique at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. When he returned, he settled in Sudbury with his wife Lina Butti.

Pancaro was a supporter of fascism -- believing it had improved the socioeconomic status of most Italians. On June 10, 1940 he was arrested as a threat to the Canadian state. While interned at Camp Petawawa, he worked at the camp hospital, providing medical care to fellow internees and on occassion to camp guards and officials.

After his release, he resumed his medical practice. Eventually Pancaro (a devout Roman Catholic) returned to Italy and served as a physician for Padre Pio, who was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2002.